Launch of ENVIS Portal and Inauguration of National Interaction-cum-Evaluation Workshop (17-19 February, 2016) for ENVIS Centres at New Delhi.
Shri Prakash Javadekar, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched the Environment Information System (ENVIS) portal at the Inaugural function of the National Interaction-cum-Evaluation Workshop for ENVIS Centres at The Ashok, New Delhi on 17th February, 2016. Speaking after launching the ENVIS Portal, the Minister said that the government’s endeavour has been to take care of nature and ensure sustainable development. The Minister said that the challenge before ENVIS is to find out new ways to reach out to people and how to popularise science and sustainable practices. Shri Javadekar emphasised the need to continuously upgrade each ENVIS centre.
The Minister also distributed the award of the best State ENVIS centre to Forests, Environment & Wildlife Management Department, Sikkim and the award for the best Thematic ENVIS Centre to Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Shri Javadekar also released knowledge products of ENVIS Centres including – an ENVISBulletin on ‘Ecology and Management of Grassland Habitats in India’ by WII ENVIS Centre, a book on ‘State at a Glance: Jammu & Kashmir’ Vol(1) 3, 2015 by GB Pant ENVIS Centre, a book on ‘Ecological Traditions of India - Gujarat - Vol. XI’ by CPREEC ENVIS Centre and a Compendium on "Environment in the Indian Parliament: 2011-2015" (CD format) by WWF ENVIS Centre. The Minister also released mobile applications, including an ENVIS App (2.2 Version) on medicinal plants by neighbourhood App (0.4.0 version) on common medicinal plants of Bengaluru City by FRLHT ENVIS Centre, economic algal material, important fungi and their applications, important bacteria and their applications - Android App by ENVIS Centre, Kalyani University.
Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Ashok Lavasa, said that people in India have always had a spiritual belief in nature. The Secretary underlined the need to make ENVIS more relevant by providing an analytical database to enable and assist well-informed decision making. Shri Lavasa added that the Ministry wants to create a vibrant network and associate all research organisations, institutions and NGOs working in the field of environment. He also underlined the need to involve more people in environment, particularly in the field of waste management. Environmental Information System (ENVIS) Portal - http://envis.nic.in, a new initiative, runs parallel with the Digital India Objective, which works on improving the digital literacy in the environment sector and deliver services digitally all over the country. The digitization of valuable data covering the broad spectrum of subjects on environment will serve as an asset in generating feature rich repository of information. Bringing all ENVIS Centres under one roof will also facilitate convergence in data dissemination. Environmental Information System (ENVIS), a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry has been implemented since 1982. The purpose of the scheme is to integrate country-wide efforts in environmental information collection, collation, storage, retrieval and dissemination through ENVIS websites, which are dedicated to different interesting themes. The network presently consists of 69 Centres, of which 29 are hosted by the environment/forest department of State governments/UT Administrations and deal with “State of the environment and related issues”, while 40 Centres are being hosted by environment-related governmental and non-governmental organisations/institutes of professional excellence and have a thematic mandate. Major users of ENVIS include Central and State Governments, institutes and individual scientists, researchers, students and agencies carrying out environmental impact assessment of projects, as well as public.
This is the first time that the National Workshop of ENVIS has been organised in the capital. Senior Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ms. Anandi Subramanian and Shri Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, World Wildlife Fund India also addressed the gathering. Shri Abhay Kumar, Deputy Economic Adviser in the Ministry, delivered the vote of thanks.
About the ENVIS Portal:
Environmental Information System (ENVIS) Portal is an umbrella term comprising to the network of ENVIS centres identified all over India based on various themes covering the area of environment, forest and climate change.
Today, solutions to environmental challenges are aided by an arsenal of information and knowledge systems that were unavailable for most of the last 30 years. ENVIS has been playing pivotal role in supporting the dissemination of information to wider parts in India as well as abroad through its websites and information products.
ENVIS Portal will serve as the core centre to aid its network ENVIS centres in achieving their objectives of data collection, collation and dissemination focussing on their subject of specialization.
This portal will be the guiding force behind functioning as well as monitoring of ENVIS Network centres. ENVIS portal would be interacting with the ENVIS Network websites to represent the best of the contents from these websites thereby making the portal more data rich and informative to the stakeholders.
Information and Knowledge Products of ENVIS
- ENVIS is producing value-added information products relating to Environment, Forest, Wildlife and Climate Change which includes theme based newsletters, special publications, e-newsletters, thematic bulletins, technical reports, Discussion Forum, mobile apps, directories of information at State/regional/ National level, Bibliography, information products developed on parks and sanctuary, desertification maps, flora and fauna species distribution maps. Query-Answer Service is a major responsibility of ENVIS Network.
- Indian State-level Basic Environmental Information Database (ISBEID)
A database named India State-Level Basic Environmental Information Database (ISBEID) with 17 modules and GIS interface has been developed in association with National Informatics Centre (NIC), to assist State/ UT Centres to collect, compile and disseminate information on a centralised server, and to fill their gaps in environmental data dissemination. As of now, only static information/data are made available by the State ENVIS Centres.
Beneficiaries of ENVIS
- Major users include Central and State Government, institutes and individual scientists, researchers, students and agencies carrying out environmental impact assessment of projects as well as public. During the year 2015-16, the ENVIS Centres put together, witnessed over one crore forty lakhs hits and addressing queries of more than 40,000 as on 31st January 2016 and it is growing.
